What Mattered Most
by NostalgicSchemer
Summary: His eyes are brown, his hair is gold. In '84 he was born in Baton Rouge. His favorite song is "In My Life". I memorized his every move. I knew his books, his car, his clothes. But I paid no attention to what mattered most. Seto/Joey


NS: Wow... Something I never thought I'd write: A yaoi YGO fic... Oh well. ^^

I don't own anything. Lyrics changed to fit the characters.

_/I thought I knew the boy so well  
If he was sad, I couldn't tell/_

Empty. The room is bare of all of his things, as if he had never been there in the first place. All of the pictures of the two of us together are gone, his journal missing from his side of the bed. The hangers that held his clothes are scattered around the room. But he took more than what he packed.

I grip the door frame tightly as I scan the room for any clue on where he had gone. Nothing. Our bedroom is as bare as the we had first moved in. I hadn't left the mansion, but I had taken to sleeping in his room more often than my own.

What had possessed him to up and leave? I had thought that I made it clear I loved him. I was usually able to tell with just a few gestures what kind of mood he was in. He had spent more and more time with his friends, which I, of course, objected to at first if only because I was jealous. I never noticed that he would come home a little mellower than normal, as if...

As if the house was a prison.

The thought stilled my heart and robbed whatever strength I had left in my legs, sending me to a heap onto the floor.

_/I missed the point, I missed the signs  
So if he's gone the fault is mine/_

Scrambling for my phone, I call the one person I didn't think I'd have the need to call. "Hello, Domino City Game Shop. How can I help you?" I cringe at how cheerful the voice of Yugi is on the other end of the phone.

"Yugi, have you seen Joey?" I ask, trying desperately not to sound as frantic as I feel. I clench my eyes shut and imagine the golden haired teen I had been living with for the past two years. I can see him clearly; his confident smirk, the fire in his eyes, shoulder length hair that was always messy, no matter how much he tried to tame it.

"Kaiba?" Yugi asked, snapping me out of my daydream. "I said I haven't seen him for over a week... Why, what happened?" Why is Yugi always so understanding and helpful? As calmly as I can, I tell him what I had come home to and he murmurs an apology and a promise to call if he sees the blond.

_/I know, I know a whole lot of little things  
And even though I confess them one by one,  
He would still be gone/_

One week turns into two and I've found myself skipping meals, something that I hadn't done since Joey and I had gotten together. I spend more time off from work, just frequenting the places that I knew he loved to go to: the Game Shop, the amusement park, the movie theater... And yet there's no indication that he's even in Domino City anymore.

When I return home, I had the stupid hope that I'd see him sitting on the couch, playing some video game with Mokuba. But as I go inside the large tomb I've lived in, I sit on my bed and look at the picture of him I had taken when he was asleep in my lap during one of the longer rides in the limo we had taken after one of our dates. Suddenly, I get an idea.

Standing up with an energy I had been lacking over the past two weeks, I turn on my laptop and begin filling out a lost persons paper.

I smile slightly, uploading the picture I had and pasting it on the top of the paper, nodding with satisfaction.

_/His eyes are brown, his hair is gold  
In '84 he was born in Baton Rouge  
His favorite song is "In My Life"  
I memorized his every move  
I knew his books, his car, his clothes/_

Almost immediately I post the signs all over town, failing to notice the sad smiles people are sending me. I'm too filled with hope of seeing him to care about what they think. I will find him, I know it.

_/But I paid no attention to what mattered most.../_

Two more weeks pass, making a month since he had just up and left me. He knew of all my insecurities with being alone. I knew his past, but it pained me to know that he couldn't trust me with his future to stay.

With all this extra time between calling everyone I could think of and exhausted sleep, I began to analyze our relationship, hoping to find a clue about why he had left. What I found out made me sick to my stomach.

_/I never asked, he never said  
And when he cried I turned my head  
He dreamed his dreams behind closed doors  
That made them easy to ignore/_

I had stopped asking him about his day, asking what he wanted to do after dinner, asking what he wanted to do for special occasions. He had never put any input in, but, looking back, I could see the silent questions, suggestions that I foolishly shrugged off. A week before he had left, he had taken to crying when he thought I wasn't around. I had assumed it was something to do with his book, so I continued on my way...

He used to have dreams: all kinds of wonderful things. Getting married, starting a family, even if the children were adopted or from a surrogate mother... He used to tell me that he wanted to see a little girl with his my eyes and his hair running around the house... But he had gone quiet about them and I had eventually forgotten them.

_/And I know, I know I missed the forest for the trees  
__And all I have to show, oh, when he walked out the door  
The cold facts and nothing more/_

No wonder he had left me. I wasn't a very attentive lover anymore. I had stopped telling him how I felt, stopped dropping little kisses on the top of his head, giving small caresses when we were curled up on the couch watching a movie.

I don't know when I had moved, but I found myself sitting on the couch, watching one of his favorite movies. It was a dramantic movie, something I didn't normally watch, but it helped ease the thought that he was gone... Sometimes, anyway.

_/His eyes are brown, his hair is gold  
In '84 he was born in Baton Rouge  
His favorite song is "In My Life"  
I memorized his every move  
I knew his books, his car, his clothes/_

A year had passed and still no one had heard from him. It was as if Joey Wheeler had never existed. I spent my time off hanging out with the cheerleaders, dueling to pass the time, playing chess with Yugi's alter-ego. But at the end of the day, I still returned home to an empty house. Mokuba was out with friends more often than not, but as long as his grades didn't suffer, I didn't mind.

_/But I paid no attention to what mattered most.../_

The next day, I went my office, a fire in my eyes. My staff was surprised by my look, the cold businessman they had known before Joey had been dropped into my life. When I got there, I set up a news broadcast, world wide. There was no way he could miss this.

"Attention... I have lost someone important and if you see him, please ask him to come home. His name is Joey Wheeler. _His eyes are blue, his hair is gold. In 84 he was born in Baton Rouge. His father's tall, his mother's gone; he moved out west when he was two._.. Thank you for your time."

There was a commotion for the next week. Agents were coming and going, trying to locate the blond that stole my heart, and I played the broadcast at least four times a day.

_/The way he laughed, the way he loved./_

I got a phone call at three in the morning and I sat up straight. It was Yugi and he didn't sound all that happy. I heard crying in the background and felt my heart clench. I nodded when he told me to come down to the shop and quickly left.

I wasn't ready for the sight that stood in front of me.

Joey Wheeler was there, holding a baby girl in his arms and embracing a crying Teá, trying to calm her down. His eyes were filled with joy and a warmth that I hadn't seen in years. They room quieted when I was noticed and Joey slowly turned to look at me. I felt my heart clench and I fell to my knees.

Handing the baby to Teá, he slowly walked towards me, only to kneel in front of me and tilt my head up to look at him. He had a sad smile on his face as he wiped tears away from my face; tears I didn't even know I was shedding. My eyes glimpsed a ring on his finger, and I clenched my eyes shut, admitting defeat. I hung my head, my body shuddering.

_/Oh my God what did I do?/_

"Seto," he called softly and I looked up at him. He gives me that smile again and turns the hand with the ring over. I flinch. He didn't need to rub it in that he was happy now. But the ring I saw made my breath catch in my throat. It was the one I had given him a month after we had started dating. He said he wouldn't wear it, saying it was too girly, but he was wearing it now.

Quickly, I jerk his head down to mine and I smash his lips against mine, clinging desperately to him. He returns the frantic kiss, though pulls away. Pressing his forehead to mine, he smiles again. "Where did you go?" I ask.

"I got scared," he stated, his accent a chorus of angels on my battered soul. "Boys ain't supposed ta get pregnant... And I didn't know how ya would react, so I left."

"Come home," I whisper, pleading.

He grinned at me. "I am home." he said, pressing himself closer to me.


End file.
